Paula Lujan Quinene, B.S. Exercise & Movement Science, University of Oregon, 1997;  ACSM Certified Health Fitness Specialist 2002-present; ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor 2001-2011; ACE certified personal trainer 1999-2011;  NSCA Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist 2004-2008.

CHILDHOOD YEARS

I was an overweight, fat girl!  I believe I was my mom's lightest baby, but I ended up as her heaviest child!  I was never skinny.  I remember looking at a picture of me during my 5th birthday party at the beach.  I was wearing shorts and a bathing suit top.  My belly was spilling over.   I was chubby in ALL of my childhood pictures!

The turning point for me was when I was 12 years old.  My family and I were at my auntie's house.  I was wearing long pants and a very long, buttoned down blouse (to cover up my big tummy, hips, and thighs).  I stepped on the scale and the needle moved to 140!   I was only 12 years old, in the 7th grade, under 5 feet tall, and was wearing a size 15/16 pants!

I had my dad take my bed out of my bedroom so I could exercise in some privacy.  I slept on the floor for a long time!  I came up with my own type of cardio workout, a 45 minute combination of kick-open-side-to-side, jumping jacks, and running in place.  My parents let me rent / buy a VCR.  When asked what I wanted for Christmas or my birthday, I asked for exercise tapes.  Along with the tapes I received as gifts, I also bought some on my own.  I amassed quite a collection from Jane Fonda to Kathy Smith to Gilad, etc.

I was quite in awe of my 7th grade P.E. teacher, Ms. Samfong.  For those of you who can recall,  though she was quite chunky, this lady was out there running with us, just as good as any of her students!  I can still see her in her long ponytail, with eye-glasses.  Remember that paved area at FBLG?  She could run round n' round that thing......waiting on us!  I said to myself, "If Ms. Samfong could do it, so can I!"  THANK YOU MS. SAMFONG!  She totally helped me develop decent running habits through my 8th grade P.E. classes with Ms. Gee and ???.  I learned to keep running, albeit slow, but keep on going!

It was during my 8th grade year that I started lifting weights.  I was 13 years old.  My mom always took us to Mark's Sporting Goods store (when it was adjacent to Ben Franklin in Tamuning) for my brother's baseball needs.  I had picked up a copy of SHAPE magazine along with 5 and 10 pound dumbbells.  These were the days when Tiger's Milk bars were practically the only energy bars available.  Using SHAPE (a more active / sporty magazine then, compared to today), I learned how to do some basic dumbbell exercises.

Obviously, I ate a lot as a child!  I loved to eat everything!  One of my favorites that I can remember were Pop-Tarts.  My dad caught coolers of fish and I loved the crunchy tale of fried fish.  I know rice (white rice and fried rice) was huge for us.....for most Chamorros anyways.  Spam, corned-beef (in the can), hot dogs, chorizos espanot, and kaddo were staples in my house too.  Of course, it was easy to eat a lot as the fiestas / bbqs were frequent on Guam.  We didn't eat much fast food.  McDonalds was a once-in-a-while treat.  There were very few fast food places on the island when I was a kid.  Once I started exercising in my room, I caught on to bread (or crackers) and cheese.  This was a huge change in calorie consumption compared to rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I don't remember much else as far as eating was concerned.  I must have taken in fewer calories (and expended more) because I did lose a lot of weight by my freshman year of high school.

I was a "loner" of an overweight kid.  I didn't have much self-confidence / self-esteem, nor was I outgoing.  I had one very close childhood friend, Jennifer A. T. Cruz,  the rest were nice school-mates (I did not belong to any "cliques").  I am sure this bothered me, however, I was quite occupied with getting good grades (as expected from parents / grandparents) and fulfilling my responsibilities as the oldest of six kids.

One of my victories was sometime in my 8th grade year of middle school!  I tried on my baton twirling uniform (from 5th grade) and they practically fell off!  I was sooooo excited.

All while growing up, I remember my mom baking and decorating cakes!  She was really good!  She could look at a picture, the Care Bears for instance, and draw it right on to the cake!  Mrs. Lujan as she was known in her teaching days, brought in so many cakes to Yigo Elementary School:  for birthdays, holiday parties, or whatever the occasion would be.  As her children, we were so excited to bring in a cake decorated by mom!  If my memory is correct, I remember I decorated a Jack-o-lantern for a Halloween party once.....my mom had to convince me I did a good job....I wasn't so sure!  Mom didn't know it at the time, but she taught me a very marketable, money-making skill!

My good friend and I started experimenting with making cookies whenever we were allowed to touch the stove (sometime in middle school I guess).  Gosh, we came up with "Tootsie Roll Cookies" as they were dark as tootsie rolls and the texture was pretty close.....chewy as heck!  Then there was the "Diabetic Cookie" because they were not sweet at all....oops, we forgot the sugar!  Finally, the last cookie I remember, was some concoction that included peanut m&ms......it looked like today's tuille cookies.....I don't know if it was edible though.

HIGH SCHOOL:  1988-1992

THE COLLEGE YEARS:  1993 - 1997

GERMANY / NORTH CAROLINA:  1997 - 2002

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Easy-Breezy & "Healthy" Recipes